Ivory poison
by Shadow Priesstes
Summary: The Zoo got a new animal and its caretaker on they hands, but the new arrival is nothing they would have expected. Everyone is in for a frightening ride...
1. Prologue

A/N: I think this moving and university thing are getting to my brain then I doubt that I would ever do this without it being a request…

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><p>I. Prologue<p>

The Central Park Zoo was buzzing from excitement seeing that it would be opened again tomorrow and most of the animals could hardly wait for it. The whole complex was closed down for a whole week with a part being in such condition since two and a half. Of course went Skipper and his team investigating at the wish of the others finding out that soon a new animal would be arriving together with its caretaker. The only problem was that they had no clue what type of animal it will be, the only thing they knew that Alice was not happy about it, but that was nothing new to them.

So finally the day of the arrival come and everyone stared curiously at the large crate the six humans were pushing in while Alice the Zoo Keeper was walking in the front with another person. He was probably the new animal's caretaker seeing that he was always glancing at the crate. The animals lost sight of them as they walked over the little bridge and disappeared in the little man made forest where the new habitat was located. The six deliverers returned after a few minutes satisfied with they payment.

Meanwhile inside was Alice staring at the large crate with a slight distaste on her face, luckily was her new colleague currently looking around the new habitat built out like a rain forest with some grassy and rocky spots and a large cave. She had argued a whole month with her boss as to not get this thing transferred here, but he didn't listen and went on and on that these species always made a big publicity and this will be the largest. Alice had other options, sure everyone thought that she didn't care for animals, but her attitude was mainly because anyone would get annoyed repeating the same thing for hours to snot nosed little kids whom never listened to the rules. In truth loved Alice animals and helped as a kid often out by her aunt, who was a vet in they hometown. She had seen how sick some animals could get form the things the visitors feed them in Zoos when the caretakers were not looking. This was the ground why she had these harsh rules, she wanted to keep her animals as safe as she could manage, but this thing made her feel uneasy. It was dangerous and could result in tragedy if she didn't keep an eye on the visitors and the other animals to not enter the new habitat even by accident. This was why it was farther form the others and you even needed to cross a little bridge and forest part.

Hopefully was this safety enough.

Soon she realized that the young man was calling her.

"Alice-san, arigatou, this place is perfect for Ryuo , but you might want to leave now. He is tame, but will attack any strangers violently." the Japanese caretaker Dr. Tomonaga Hikoroshi said smiling.

"If you are sure Dr. Hikoroshi." Alice said as she threw a new uneasy glance at the crate and hurried out and stopped only at the end of the bridge.

Why did she have again the feeling as if she would be watched?

Meanwhile back in the habitat was the Japanese caretaker slowly opening the doors of the large box, the smile still present on his face as he brushed a few of his black locks aside which were not long enough to be tied back.

"Gomen nesai, Ryou-san I know that the flight here was bothersome for you, but at least we are finally here. Ouji-san would also approve of your new habitat." he said smiling as the door slowly opened and he held his hand out. "See, it is safe, nii-san is here." he said when a long slit tongue brushed slightly against his out hold hand, taking in the familiar scent as the large creature emerged slowly from the dark crate into the light which gleamed on the ivory scales.

The Zoo's newest attraction had finally arrived, but no one knew how the inhabitants would react to the newcomer. Only one thing was for sure, there would never be a peaceful day here for the animals even after all this time.

_To be continued _


	2. Meeting the newcommer

A/N: so guys here is the new chapter which will reveal the new animal…

II. Meeting the newcomer

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><p>Unluckily for the residents of the Central Park Zoo spent the caretaker the whole evening in the new habitat which made Skipper decide to call the visiting off till tomorrow evening. This only made everyone even more curious because it seemed as if most of the visitors headed with excitement just in to that direction and Alice was muttering something under her breath which wasn't new, but she glanced uneasily at the bridge.<p>

When the night come thought were the penguins pleased when they noted that the Japanese caretaker was finally going away which meant that they could make they little visit. This was a routine inside the Zoo, the penguins went to see if the new arrival wasn't a dangerous spy, Skipper's paranoia most of the time, though both Private and Marlene the otter went to be good neighbours, King Julien to babble about his "laws" and the others to satisfy thy curiosity while being polite.

"Everything is clear." called Skipper after he and Kowalsky tested the bridge for any traps.

"Really guys, is this really necessary every time we get a new arrival?" Marlene asked in slight annoyance.

"Of course it is Marlene, never question it." answered Skipper at which the female otter only rolled her eyes.

"Can we go now ok? I want to see the new arrival in my kingdom." come Julien's voice at now which everyone beside Mort rolled they eyes, the lemur needed only a minute to get annoying.

"I think we can."

And thus was the animal group already crossing the bridge though Burt, Bada and Bing seemed to be to heavy for it meaning that they needed to wait for the others to get back and tell them how it was. Everyone found it strange that the new habitat seemed this scheduled away from the other parts of the Zoo, this of course making Skipper only more cautious. Finally getting to the other side and the end of the little dirt path were they standing in front of a large cage. Picking the lock was easy for the trained commando group and in only a matter of minutes were they already inside the new habitat. It seemed normal, but they were still missing the newcomer.

"Our new guest might be inside the cave." translated Mason for Phil.

"Well then, let us get in there." stated Julien pompously and was already making his first steps towards the large cave when the sound of movements caught thy ears.

"I know that I'm not from here thought I would have thought that even Americansss know the basssic rulesss of courtesssy, which meansss not breaking into sssomeone'sss home without they permisssion." said suddenly a deep hissing voice with a foregain accent from the cave's entrance before the creature appeared.

The animals didn't even notice as they all took a step back and closer together. The animal appeared to be a large reptile, but unlike by Roy the crocodile was it more similar looking to a lizard. This was not what scared them all thought, it was the fact how the pale silver light of the full moon glistered on the creature's ivory scales and giving its crimson eyes a frightening light.

"GAAAHHHF! A cruel spirit!" Julien jelled in fright and his behind Skipper who was already in combat pose.

"How amusssing, this is a new reaction which I didn't get before." the newcomer said laughing while swishing its tail beside his body. "I'm a Komodo Dragon also known as Varansu Komodoensis thought the natives living on the Komodo islands where we are called ora, buaya darat or land crocodile if translated, but this might be enough, beside that I also happen to be an albino." the large reptile finished smirking when he noted that beside the tall penguin were all the other animals staring at him blankly.

"Er…" Rico brought out what most of the others thought while they stared towards Kowalski whose eyes started gleaming.

"This is rally interesting albinism as it is commonly referred to means lack of melanin in the skin so the skin is white or pinkish due to the blood circulation. Since pigments give the eyes their colour, albinos have red eyes, again because of the blood. Thought in the case of reptiles getting a full albino is pretty rare due to the two sets of cells that produce colour, the melanocytes and the chromatophores which are…hmpf" Kowalski's little lecture was stopped when a flipper covered his beak.

"That is enough Kowalski no need to go into a deep lecture." Skipper said while looking again at they amused guest.

"Ah, by any meansss I'm not bothered by talking to othersss whom ssseem to have at leassst a brain and know how to ussse it." come the reply while most eyes fell on a still startled Julien. "My name isss Ryuo and I come together with my nii-sssama from the Kyoto Zoo in Japan. I have ssspent sssome time learning your language before we got here."

"It is nice to met you Ryuo." greeted Private and Marlene happily.

"Domo Arigatou for the welcome." Ryuo replied while bowing a little bit. "Now I hate it to ssssound rude, but may I asssk for your departure ssseeing that I'm sstill bussy with the sssetting upss inside my cave and it wasss already a long day. Dehamata." and with that was he already turning around and going into the caves direction.

The other animals stared for a few minutes after the departing figure before making they way hurriedly out of the habitat. When getting over the bridge got the three others also updated while Julien was still muttering that the other could only be a demon, but of course was he by most ignored. Both Private and Marlene tried to calm everyone down in saying that they would only need some time getting used to him. Kowalski on the other hand seemed interested that there might be someone other like him with a large IQ.

Finally had Skipper enough from all the chatter around him and told everyone to go to bed or do what they always do at night and they will keep one eye on the albino dragon from tomorrow on.

Meanwhile somewhat under the cave in a hidden chamber was a white creature chuckling in amusement. It was really a great idea to first set up a surveillance room in his new home before the laboratory, which could wait till tomorrow. He had all his needed equipment from his old home so he had everything he needed, no hunting around, well till later maybe when he could freely continue his experiments. In his old Zoo had he enough help form the other inhabitants whom sneaked out to hunt for him, but here will he need to get creative, not that it bothered him.

"Well, I firssst need to ssset everything up and to let nii-sssama sssettle in here, I hate bothering him." Ryou said to the silent room as his gaze was fixated on the cameras he had managed to put up around the Zoo and one in his caretakers new room, thought the last one was only to make sure that the man was fine. "Hmm…though it ssseemss asss if I would need to keep one eye out on thossse penguinssss, oh well I alwaysss enjoyed a good challenge." he finished laughing before leaving the room to set the last books in they proper place in his library. He just hated being unorganized.

_To be continued…_


	3. The Disappearances

A/N: I needed to bite my tongue in my last class on Friday because my professor wore a white shirt and a black armless jacket over it and I needed to realize that he looked just like Private would in human form, even his voice is similar…

By the way, thank you all for the comments I really appreciate those because they actually tell me that people are reading this, by the others I need to look up my stats which is annoying. This is also the ground why this gets a new chapter and now will you get a guess about what will await everyone at the Zoo.

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><p>III. The Disappearances<p>

The upcoming two weeks went over peacefully since the opening to of the new habitat, well in Skipper's option was it to peaceful, but no one seemed to share his worries or paranoia as the others called it. Ryou was rarely seen by the others as he was most of the time where there were no visits in his cave doing something or reading outside. Sometimes got the two chimps him to discus some literature with them, it seemed that he had no problems with understanding Phil, he explained that Xei-Xei a panda lady back then in his old home was also born mute and communicated with sign language. He didn't find it important to mention that said panda lady was one of his two main assistants by his experiments the other being his lover a Sumatran Tiger under the name Kagurai. Sometimes he would chat with Rune about magic at which she was pretty eager to talk, playing right into his claws in revealing her knowledge. Occasionally he would also get into little intellectual chats with Kowalski while trying to get some information about the penguins from they little chats when the other rants bout his habitat mates and they disrespect against science. Thus giving away unintentionally information's about them all, thought on one thing needed Ryou to agree, King Julien was a large idiot, really they had lemurs in his old home and they were fairly intelligent and good help in getting herbs for him, but this one ugh…thought he started finding the one called Mort's high pain tolerance interesting and maybe even useful.

No one would have guessed how good it would have been listening to Skipper's paranoia, to Julien's idiotic talks about demons or how they should have been more careful about what they reveal. It all started when the sun set on the last day of the second week.

The last sunrays were slowly swallowed by the darkness as the shadows grew larger the more night approached. Most animals were already in they homes sleeping, or waking up from it. The Central Park was at this time of the day nearly deserted with only a few jogger out doing they annual runs to keep themselves in shape. A man in a gray jogger suit was doing the same, he was thirty, but still fit form all the running he did each day after getting home from his tiring day in the office. He was running along a familiar part as the darkness come, but he wasn't worried about something happening, but then the street lights went suddenly out. Maybe some glitch in the electric works, he shrugged it of, but it was getting cold so speeding up was he running in the direction where his car was parked. Suddenly, as mysteriously as the lights went out they returned gleaming on something in front of the man. He tried to stop, eyes widening in terror, but it was to late and blood splashed the ground as the sound of cutting and slithering disturbed the silence. Two day later a little girl went running between the trees slightly ahead of her nanny, but as the woman turned to look behind the tree the little girl run behind she only found the doll the child had been carrying. Another two day passed this time with the disappearance of a young woman right in front of her boyfriend. The man said that they made a romantic picnic and there was suddenly a strange creaking sound, he only turned around for a second and his girlfriend was gone. The police was helpless seeing that the only connection they had between the victims was that they all were last seen in Central Park, but nothing other seeing that two disappeared right in front of others in brad daylight.

Another week passed luckily without disappearances, but also without any trace of the victims till that dreadful Wednesday morning when a Park Officer was making his last stroll through the park, stopping dead in his tracks, eyes wide in horror as he took in the gruesome sight in front of him. The victims were found, stitched together making the bodies appear as a bizarre human pyramid, they skin yellow and paper like, most of the internal organs missing, they chest forced open and gapping emptily, mouths and eyes open in terror probably because of the last thing they saw, they blood glistering in the rays of the waking sun. Only the body of the little girl was different, for starters she was clothed in a white gown, placed directly in the middle of the human pyramid, her face was not twisted in horror like that of the others, she was like a little doll, as if she would only be sleeping.

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><p>The dreadful news travelled fast through both humans and animals, the Zoo's visitors were all carefully having an eye on each other and not even getting hundred feet near the Park when the sun starts to set. No one knew what was happening and till the mystery wasn't solved they would not manage to sleep peacefully. This was also the ground why Skipper was currently holding a private meeting in they HQ, but something felt off even thought the whole place was bug free according to Kowalski's machine and they four hours long search.<p>

"So men, we have a serious problem on our flippers. It seems that a sadistic killer is running around in Central Park and we need to bring them down or the visitors might decrease." Skipper stated while looking at his team.

"According to my researches if this case keeps on then we might loosed our visitors faster then back then when they preferred to watch animals in TV." added Kowalski.

"That would be bad." Private said sadly at the thought.

"This is why we are taking over for the humans and thus need to make our own investigations. Firstly we will head out to the park and talk with our watch eye in the park." and with that were they already on they way, not noticing the little mechanical bug fly out from between Privates feathers and flying in the direction of one of the habitats.

Flying inside the cave the little machine landed on the white work table while its master was washing blood from the cold metal table, deep in concentration while in the background an opera played form the radio.

"So, those penguinssss sssstart to sssstick thy beakssss into thingssss they sssshouldn't, oh well thisss will make thingsss only more entertaining." the creature chuckled as crimson eyes fell on the files on the table. "Now asss to get my new assssisssstant and that watch eye."

Everything was going mostly smoothly, only a few little things needed to be corrected, he had managed it once, but he left it in the use of his assistants and colleagues, he could re make the process here also, but now it seemed as if his Nii-san was calling him and it was only proper to not let others, mostly your cherished siblings wait. He can continue work after that, oh and he needed some new wires also.

_To be continued…_


End file.
